Practice Areas
Divorce and Custody Cases
Custody and visitation disputes appear to occur more frequently when there’s a history of domestic violence.
Judges and so-called experts do not often consider the history of violence between the parents when making these decisions.
In the case of child sexual abuse and domestic violence or any sort of situation that impairs the welfare of the kids, you have to do things differently.
The abusive parent knows the rules — but so does attorney Richard Ducote.
Criminal Defense of Victims
Domestic abusers and pedophiles blame victims because blame shifts attention away from the abuser’s choices and turns the victim’s normal reactions — fear, anger, withdrawal, confusion, and self-defense — into the supposed cause of defense.
And some judges believe them.
Richard Ducote represents women who are being prosecuted for trying to protect their children, “bad” women who killed in self-defense.
Family Court Due Process Violations
Richard Ducote uses every available legal remedy to insist that family courts comply with all procedural, substantive and constitutional mandates so that mothers and their children are not deprived of fundamental rights like custody and visitation.
Problematic Child Custody Evaluators
If you don’t understand child sexual abuse, you don’t understand domestic violence, and you try to make decisions about these cases without the benefit of understanding, you will make the wrong decision.
Enter the child custody evaluator. Seldom qualified, they’re conned and fooled by abusers who are somewhat charming, calm, and reasonable.
Moms, by contrast, are frazzled, upset, angry, and want to talk about the abuse.
In many instances, when Richard Ducote takes depositions, custody evaluators know nothing about domestic violence, little about child sexual abuse and are likely to argue the two aren’t even relevant to the custody decision.
Tort Law (Yes, You Can Sue an Abuser)
A tort is an act or omission that gives rise to injury or harm to another and amounts to a civil wrong for which courts impose liability.
Why should survivors consider suing their abusers?
It’s a very powerful remedy that many people overlook. Most abusers are bullies and bullies don’t do well when people like Richard Ducote stand up to them.
When you have a domestic-violence claim, the victim has a lawsuit against the abuser — even if the violence occurred in their home.
You can sue for personal injuries or even work out custody as part of a lawsuit.
Guardians ad Litem
The law provides for an attorney to be appointed as a guardian ad litem to represent “the best interests of the child.”
That sounds good on paper, but it’s been documented as a problem nationwide.
Because that attorney has a lot of power, a family court judge often won’t listen to the evidence. They will just follow their guardian ad litem’s recommendation.
And so it’s very important for the attorney involved in this case to understand what the proper role of the guardian ad litem is, what the ethical limitations of that role involve, what cases around the country have said that the guardian ad litem should or should not be doing are what really controls the judge’s determination.
Criminal Defense of Parents and Abuse Victims Prosecuted for Protecting Themselves
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Parental Alienation Syndrome
Molesting your child is the only crime that comes with a built-in defense.
If you molest a child, the defense in every case is that the mother made it up. And you can get people to believe that.
This bogus and discredited theory, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), is the brainchild of a disgraced child psychologist, Richard Garner, who also believed pedophilia is the norm and committed suicide by stabbing himself to death.
His legacy is a cancer in the family court system. The terem is still used by some evaluators and courts to discount children’s fears in hostile and psychologically abusive situations.
It takes a skilled litigator like Richard Ducote to refute this pseudoscience and lay bare the lies and baseless accusations of abusers.